


Grendel

by Topazphantom



Category: Aquaman (Comics), Aquaman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-11
Updated: 2017-12-11
Packaged: 2019-02-13 15:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12986553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Topazphantom/pseuds/Topazphantom
Summary: About Black Manta and Arthur Curry. I’m always fascinated by their relationships. Instead of a love story, this is more like an exploration I made about their hostility.English is my second language, and it's the first time I ever post anything on AO3. Grammar and spelling mistakes involve. Please be gentle. ;)





	Grendel

**Author's Note:**

> Though you murder the world, transmogrify life into I and it, strong searching roots will crack your cave and rain will cleanse it: The world will burn green, sperm build again.   
> ——Grendel, Chapter 12

Black Manta gets Aquaman’s Trident. The overheating-Atlantean leaves a trace of temperature where their fingerprints overlap. It’s so slippery that Manta can barely hold it - or, he burns his fingers by accident, the heavy metal almost flees. He stands quietly for a while, then wraps his hand tight again. To answer Arthur Curry’s merciful speech, he falls back a bit in the water. 

He doesn’t pay much attention to Arthur’s face. A real world without his red searchlight seems so fake. Water pushes against his leg doesn’t make any sound, and Arthur’s face is not twisting like a bottomless whirlpool. 

He’s still putting the deathful weapon right next to Aquaman’s neck. He’s staring at the sky behind Arthur. 

Black Manta - David Hyde - the one who blows up the ceiling of the brand new Atlantean Aquarium, feels very proud of his fantastic work. The bare crossbeams, the spotty teeth of a monster, tears a part of the sky and starts chewing loudly. Pieces of glass fall into the water make a sound that’s as heavy as his heartbeats. 

Arthur’s girlish nice word doesn't offend him; Strangely, neither excites him. At first, he thought that vengeance has been bitten and tasted by so damn many drama writers and fighters from all time, so it should be a cup of wine - not too much, but worthy of a freaking shot. 

And yet here’s nothing. The salty seawater is kissing his bodysuits. Arthur Curry could’ve killed him. He’s holding his enemy’s weapon. There’s nothing like the brutal vengeance he imagined before; instead, he feels like Don Quixote, stupidly challenging a windchill. He has become the laughing stock of the owner of those compassionate blue eyes. 

Manta bears his teeth. Nothing like a fish in the ocean, but likely a beast from the surface. The more Aquaman says, the more certain he gets; the steadier Arthur seems to be, the more desperate for Manta to tears his peaceful face apart. David’s arms are trembling, for he raised the Trident higher. The sharp, golden edge is caressing the fragile neck of the Atlantean. All he needs is a little push. A light stabbing will be enough to crucify this pretty mermaid, till his archenemy consumes the very last loop of cardinal bubbles. 

But it won’t be enough. 

He can’t find any strength within his pulse; not because of the pain from the previous fight, but unwilling to do so. How can he let Arthur Curry die in the ashes of the Atlantean embassy, with a trace of hope to rebuild this broken relationship with the land? In another word, this place is too close to the ocean - and water comforts Arthur Curry. Killing him here will be like letting your enemy die of happiness. 

“Nothing you can do to me will EVER be enough.”

Frightenedly, Black Manta realizes that Arthur Curry is mocking him, even this damn mermaid sounds sad and full of remorse. 

So many times has Manta imagined how to make Arthur pay. Slaying will be too much of effort, let him die of thirst takes too much time. What about cut off his head? Chop him into small pieces and feed to the dogs? So many times has Manta admired all the illusions of Aquaman’s death in the red light, so many times. 

Yet each time he shakes his head, feeling nothing’s GOOD enough. 

Building on the brutality of human nature, is there actually an ultimate way of revenge? If your enemy haunts your dreams day and night, destructs your thoughts, takes over your mind? Your life spins around him, your knife follows wherever he goes - if so, what’s the satisfying way of murder? 

Interpret one thing requires higher meaning; yet to interpret this higher meaning, there’s still space for another higher one - this is an endless chain. Manta is struggling to breathe. HOW should he kill Arthur Curry? 

How can people fill up the ocean with one drop of water? Even death will be too lame for his waves of hatred. The death of Arthur Curry means an end to their entanglement, but how can an endless thing reach its terminal point? 

Maybe Arthur Curry will be praised for his mercy. However, for Black Manta, it’s nothing but a chronic murder. At first Aquaman took his father, then his life; for now, this bastard even strangles his pale wish of getting a normal life by a compassionate face. His obsession for Arthur Curry acknowledges him the emptiness and absurdism of life; to avoid digging the dangerous line of suicidal commitment, he clings even tighter to this sick persistence, just like a dying person struggles to reach the last piece of wood while falling into the ocean. 

David Hyde is Black Manta, the archenemy of Arthur Curry. But what will he be if Arthur Curry is gone? Who CAN he be? Indeed Arthur is the loose board of that sinking ship. He causes everything to fall apart. Unfortunately, how long can David live in this freaking ruins if Black Manta let go of the last straw? 

He hates himself for knowing the answer. He hates Arthur even worse, for he learns the answer a little bit earlier. 

Once again, he turns and meets Aquaman’s blue eyes. All the compassion and nobility disappears; he sees nothing but his own wandering reflection. 

“Damn you.”

He throws the Trident away fiercely as if it doesn’t hurt. His strength leaves his body along with the beautiful parabola. He kneels in this dreadful flood he brings, covering his eyes with both hands. Arthur Curry’s words are still stretching his eardrum patiently. Only if he has two more hands, he would definitely cover his ears as well. 

It’s the first time for him to whimper in front of someone else after his father’s death. He hides his face in the palms, water penetrates his eyelashes. It hurts. 

He will always be the unstable factor in Arthur Curry’s life. A beam of warning red light, a potential threat. But he knows he can never kill this damn Atlantean, for he relies on this continuous anger to bring his broken soul a vague meaning of existence.

Arthur Curry has stolen his life. 

For this, he hates him like hell, but there’s nothing left to do.


End file.
